Kingdom approved 127,198 Hajj quota for Bangladesh in 2023 DHAKA: Saudi officials are working round-the-clock to facilitate the travel of more than 127,000 Bangladeshi pilgrims under the Makkah Route initiative this year, Riyadh’s envoy said on Sunday as the first Hajj flight left Dhaka for Jeddah. As the Hajj returned in 2023 to pre-pandemic arrangements, Bangladesh’s pilgrim quota has more than doubled compared with last year, when it was 60,000. All the pilgrims will be assisted by Saudi authorities under the Makkah Route initiative. This is a flagship pre-travel program launched by the Kingdom in 2019 to help pilgrims fulfill all the visa, customs and health requirements at their airport of origin, and save them long hours of waiting before and upon arrival in Saudi Arabia. “We inaugurate for the third year the initiative of Route Makkah … We will accommodate, inshallah, this year 127,198 pilgrims — 100 percent through the Makkah Route initiative. This is because we follow our leadership direction and directives to serve the pilgrims and to facilitate their holy journey,” Saudi Ambassador to Bangladesh Essa Al-Duhailan said during a Hajj pre-departure event at Shah Jalal International Airport in Dhaka. “My colleagues and the embassy, we are working day and night, 24 hours a day, to accomplish our objectives to serve the pilgrims.” Shahadat Hossain Taslim, president of the Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh, praised the Makkah Route facility. “It is a wonderful service … This is the privilege we are getting from the Saudi government,” he said. “It was a wonderful cooperation from the government of Saudi Arabia. I would like to extend my thanks on behalf of all Bangladeshi pilgrims, countrymen, government.”